Summary: 

On this podcast we discuss how to transform from traditional sourcing to an “as a service” economy. Today’s consumers expect “anytime, anywhere” access to the self-service channel, leaving financial institutions with the challenge of optimizing availability without driving up costs. For many FIs, this challenge can quickly become overwhelming. 

Resources:

Blogs:

Banking Innovation: 4 Ways You Can Make a Big Impact Quickly

The Growing "XaaS" Service Economy Trend

Websites:

COMMERCE NOW

Diebold Nixdorf

Transcription:

Amy Lombardo:                00:13                     Hi, this is Amy Lombardo, and I'm your host for this episode of COMMERCE NOW. We're coming to you live from DN Intersect 2019 in Las Vegas. I'm joined today by Homi Karkaria, who is head of our Solutions Group, and he's presenting to our bankers today a topic that's entitled Evolving the Operational Model, which I think is a little intriguing, due to your role in the software market. So let's talk on the topic of software as a service model and why a banker should think about this as an operating model. So my first question for you, Homi, is where do you think the global software as a service market is headed right now?

Homi Karkaria:                   00:52                     Sure, thank you so much. Well, there has been significant increase in the global software as a service market as we look at things. For example, if you look at everything as a service, or what people would coin XaaS, that market has grown by 38%, or is expected to grow by that by 2020. When you look at the software side, which is the software as a service, that is also growing at healthy double digits greater than 20%, with a cumulative growth rate expected to reach a huge 185 billion by 2024.

Amy Lombardo:                01:27                     Does that sound about right for the role that you're in? Would you expect to see that? Is it something that bankers are accepting and gravitating now?

Homi Karkaria:                   01:36                     I think bankers are really understanding this and accepting it. They have started realizing the advantages of why this is happening, what's in it for them, and how they could benefit, whether they look at initiatives like branch transformation, more automation, connectivity of physical and digital channels. I mean, all of this has to happen with limited cost, with limited infrastructure, with limited resources that the bankers have, and this is where software as a service can really help them.

Amy Lombardo:                02:06                     Okay. So dive a little bit deeper into that. You mentioned a few of those benefits there, but can you explain them in a little more depth here for our listeners?

Homi Karkaria:                   02:15                     Absolutely. When you look at customers, customers have different needs. So there are different needs for tier one customers versus tier two entry. A tier one customer might be able to have a large capital expenditure as a part of their budget. A smaller customer might not. So how do I have a solution which translates or which goes from a CapEx mode to an OpEx mode? So that's one benefit for the tier two segments.

Homi Karkaria:                   02:40                     The second thing is, banks want to retain, in certain cases, their own cloud environments, their own private cloud. However, there are certain applications which are not business critical and they want to connect to a public cloud. So how do I build a hybrid solution which connects the best of [inaudible 00:02:57] from what Diebold Nixdorf brings with what the have in-house?

Homi Karkaria:                   03:01                     When you look at the challenges that the banks face today, a lot of it is to do with upgrades. So I have done, you know, how much time does it take to do an upgrade and that could be reduced significantly in software as a service model.

Homi Karkaria:                   03:15                     The other big challenge is, when I have an update, how do I ensure that my install base is not affected because of somebody else? How do I have a faster go-to-market? How do I have a seamless migration to have a positive consumer journey? So those are all the benefits that the standardized solutions which comes as a part of the SaaS models brings to the banks.

Amy Lombardo:                03:38                     So where does security come into this model? Is it almost you're more protected by going through as a service model, or maybe what are the considerations that a bank needs to think about pertaining to security?

Homi Karkaria:                   03:52                     Security becomes absolutely critical when we go to this model because the benefit is the flexibility across the different channels that brings with it the challenges associated with security. Now, when you look at security you're not just looking at security from a client end-point perspective, which might be the ATM, you also need to look at security from a backend server perspective based on the solution that's hosted in the cloud, and how are these two connected? How do I ensure that my end consumer is indeed the right one and is using the channel effective. Security becomes an extremely critical part of this equation.

Amy Lombardo:                04:29                     Okay, so Homi, let's move a little bit into the implementation side. What does a banker need to think about as they want to move to the SAS model or are there particular models based on their own environment?

Homi Karkaria:                   04:43                     Yeah, so I give simple example to illustrate what kind of models the bankers can think about. If you are an end consumer, you have multiple options. You could own your own car. That is equal to, in my books, putting a software on-prem at the customer side. But I could decide to lease a car. I don't want to own the car. I do not want to have the headache of it's a maintenance and upgrades, et cetera. And I want to change it after a couple of... so I could lease a car. And leasing a car is then synonymous to software as a service. I could also have a situation where, I don't even want to lease a car, I don't want to drive it. I want to take a taxi. I want to go from point A to point B today. I want to go from point P to Q tomorrow and I want to take a taxi.

Homi Karkaria:                   05:28                     And that would be a synonymous to a managed service model where a customer is requesting, I have not only to deploy the solution but operated on the RBF. And finally when we look at something that we call biz sourcing, it's like taking a train. A train leaves a station, irrespective of the number of consumers that enter it. A train does not deviate. It goes from station A to B to C at a specific predetermined time period. And that's akin to what we call biz sourcing, where solutions ATM as a service come in. So bank needs to think of where are they today? Where do they want to go, how much do they want to invest? What's the level of maturity inside the bank? How do they focus on their core competencies of financial services versus focusing on technology and let us handle it for them.

Amy Lombardo:                06:16                     Got it. Well that was a perfect example there and made very logical sense to me. You mentioned on premise and off premise servicing. Can you explain the differences there and and really is there any difference for the consumer?

Homi Karkaria:                   06:34                     So from a consumer perspective there wouldn't be a difference. From a bank's perspective, there are a couple of differences. When you look at a solution that is hosted as a service, you have all those benefits, like a standard solution with faster go to market with the quick upgrades and seamless migration, et cetera. However, when you look at an on-prem solution, you have other types of advantages. Namely a customer might want to have a highly customized solution. They might want to have control over the implementation timelines. They might have specific integrations which are very proprietary to the banks ecosystem, so they might have cash on the balance sheet, which they want to invest upfront and they want to pay for the licenses right away rather than distributed over a couple of years. So it's a very different model when you look at on-prem versus SAS and that are advantages and differences between the two.

Amy Lombardo:                07:32                     So it sounds like there's benefits either way, it's just based on how your organization's makeup is built and where you want to go with the offering. Right,

Homi Karkaria:                   07:42                     Absolutely. I think especially for tier two banks, who do not have significant investments to be made on the technology side and have on faster go to market, I think a SAS solution would be better off than an on-prem solution. But otherwise, work models are very much work in the market marketplace.

Amy Lombardo:                07:58                     Got it. Okay. So I think this is a good point in our discussion to end here. Homi, I'm grateful and thankful that you sat down with me today and to our listeners out there, keep following us along on COMMERCE NOW and for more information on our Vynamic Software Offerings go to dieboldnixdorf.com. Thanks for listening.